Principal Investigator(s):Smock, Pamela, University of Michigan. Population Studies Center; Granda, Peter, University of Michigan. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research; Hoelter, Lynette, University of Michigan. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research

Summary:

The Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) integrates data from ten underlying component studies of family and fertility: the Growth of American Families studies of 1955 and 1960; the National Survey of Fertility of 1965 and 1970; and the National Surveys of Family Growth of 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002. The first release contains harmonized sociodemographic variables for all respondents from all ten component studies, including those related to marital status, race and ethnicity, e... (more info)

The Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) integrates data from ten underlying component studies of family and fertility: the Growth of American Families studies of 1955 and 1960; the National Survey of Fertility of 1965 and 1970; and the National Surveys of Family Growth of 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002. The first release contains harmonized sociodemographic variables for all respondents from all ten component studies, including those related to marital status, race and ethnicity, education, income, migration, religion, and region of origin, among others. The second release adds harmonized husband/partner sociodemographic variables as well as harmonized union history variables. The third release adds harmonized pregnancy, adoption, non-biological children, and menstruation variables. The fourth release adds harmonized fertility variables. The fifth release includes the addition of the pregnancy interval file. This file contains 217,128 pregnancy records with information pertaining to the pregnancies of all respondents. The sixth release adds comparative sample variables to the respondent and pregnancy interval files, and includes the addition of the contraceptive calendar file. This file contains 53,317 records with information pertaining to type and frequency of contraceptive use. The seventh release includes additional variables related to contraceptive knowledge, contraceptive use, birth control and family planning services, sexual history, infertility, and sterilizing operations. It also adds sociodemographic and union history variables. Imputed data through the third release are also included.

Additional information about the Integrated Fertility Survey Series can be found on the IFSS Web site.

Universe:
The universe includes all respondents in the following studies: the Growth of American Families studies of 1955 and 1960; the National Fertility Surveys of 1965 and 1970; and the National Surveys of Family Growth of 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002.

Data Types:
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

All variables contained in this data release are recoded from the ten component IFSS studies. Recode specifications are contained in comparability notes which can be found under the Harmonized Data Extracts tab on the IFSS Web site. No primary or original data collection was performed to obtain these data.

Due to further processing by the IFSS team, some variables, as well as some values have changed from previously released data.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
The purpose of the Integrated Fertility Survey Series is to create a harmonized data set of ten component surveys of fertility and family growth. Integration of these data sets will allow for easier and more efficient analysis of family and fertility data over time.

Study Design:

Data were harmonized from ten component studies of family and fertility, including the 1955 and 1960 Growth of American Families studies, 1965 and 1970 National Fertility Surveys, and the 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002 National Surveys of Family Growth.
IFSS staff harmonized all concepts that appeared in at least five of the component studies. In special cases, concepts that appears in as few as two component studies were also harmonized. Comparability notes, located on the IFSS Web site, outline the processes by which data were harmonized.

Sample:
No primary data collection or sampling was performed.

Weight:

A weight variable with two implied decimal places has been included and must be used in any analysis. Methodology for the computation of the weight variable is available on the
IFSS Web site.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Performed consistency checks.

Created variable labels and/or value labels.

Standardized missing values.

Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2010-04-08

Version History:

2013-05-14 Release 7 adds new variables and corrects mistakes. Additionally, in the interval file, 4,428 cases were added due to changes in the way IFSS_EVUSEINT was imputed. Errors in the sampling strata and weights were also corrected in both files.

2012-04-19 Revised Release 5 variables, and added Release 6 variables to the respondent and pregnancy interval files. Also, the contraceptive calendar file is being added to the collection.

2012-02-23 The pregnancy interval file is being added to the collection.